Following Senate report, some Americans double down support for CIA torture

The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a bombshell report on Tuesday morning revealing that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lied about the effectiveness and cruelty of its torture program. As the mainstream political world dissected the 525-page report's objectively horrifying revelations, however, many who support the government's international-law violations doubled down on their beliefs.

The outpouring of support for the CIA's human rights abuses demonstrates the powerful dehumanizing effect that the all-or-nothing War on Terror produced in American society. Fox News responded to the release of the Senate report by doubling down on one of its longest-running messages to viewers: America is exceptional and anyone who criticizes what it does should grow up.

Many of the torture-supporting conservatives' tweets use the words "bastard" and "animal" to describe individuals suspected (but not convicted) of supporting or engaging in terrorism. For one side of the debate over torture, no technique should be taken off the table—no matter how legally, morally, or pragmatically discredited it has been.

No tweet better summarizes the sad irony of right-wing support for torture than that last one, written by someone who calls himself a "constitutional conservative."

Photo via Val Kerry/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)